


Meet

by cougarlips



Series: Athletes AU // TLoK [3]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, POV First Person, athletes au, bolin and mako are mentioned, don't ask me what level any of them are bc im bullshitting this as i go lmao, figureskater!asami, gymnast!korra, opal jinora and kuvira are mentioned, so are tonraq and senna, we also meet the gymnastics team
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-13
Updated: 2016-03-13
Packaged: 2018-05-26 10:15:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6234685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cougarlips/pseuds/cougarlips
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Bringing my hands to my chest, I felt my nerves subside in favor of a burning determination. With Asami’s excited face welded into my mind, I focused on my routine, took a deep breath, and heard the first note of my music.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Meet

Train. Eat. Shower. Class. Sleep.

Train. Eat. Shower. Class. Sleep.

Sometimes, a meet.

There was a bustling chatter interlaced among the booming speakers and announcers, and I watched as my team had what was, arguably, our worst meet all year: Opal, usually such a natural on beam, came up too short on her final landing and sprained her ankle; Kuvira, a machine on vault, overshot her landing and jumped right off of the mat; Jinora, Master of the uneven bars, miscalculated the distance and fell flat on her chest.

The meet, overall, was not a great one, but not for my team alone, and somehow -- _somehow_ \-- we still had a shot of placing on the podium if I absolutely nailed my floor routine. My worst apparatus.

As the last performer and as one of the few who had yet to make a notable mistake in any routine, everyone watched with bated breath to see if the pressure would ruin my head or if it would ground me. I hardly listened to my coach’s words of advice as my blood pumped through my body, my nerves muffling everything around me, but when she patted her hand against my back and guided me toward the floor, something broke through the haze.

Beside Mako and Bolin (who held up an iPad where I could vaguely recognize my parents watching), Asami stood in the part of the audience reserved for family and friends of the athletes. Her hair elaborately curled, her makeup expertly applied, a grin on her face and two thumbs in the air, she cheered, hooped, and hollered as I waited for my cue.

Bringing my hands to my chest, I felt my nerves subside in favor of a burning determination. With Asami’s excited face welded into my mind, I focused on my routine, took a deep breath, and heard the first note of my music.

 

Ninety seconds never passed by so quickly, but by the fact that I didn’t fall, step out of bounds, or trip on my own two feet, and by the thunderous applause echoing through the room, I knew I did well. I stepped off of the platform and was met by my team, smiles on each of their faces as they embraced me, but I left them without a second thought. I made my way to the family sector, where Mako and Bolin grinned at me with their homemade banner in between them, and Asami looked like she was trying not to cry.

“You inspired it,” I told her immediately, and out of her chest bubbled a mixture of laughing and crying, and despite the divider between us, she grabbed my shoulders and pulled me close. (On solid ground she’s two inches taller than me, but she wore only heels outside of the gym and I could barely reach my head above her collarbone, but she was warm and smelled like cherry blossoms, her embrace trembling but secure, and I shut my eyes into her hair and let out a deep shuddering breath.)

I didn’t catch my actual score over the speakers as I was bombarded first with deafening cheers and my team was pulling me away from Asami to launch themselves at me. My score put us in second place, despite the failures on the other apparatuses.

**Author's Note:**

> i just want to say thank you to everyone who has bookmarked, left a comment, or left a kudo on either of the first two parts???? im not 100% sure if i mentioned this previously, but i've been writing and sharing fanfiction online for over six years and i've only received this kind of response one other time. even my main fandom i rarely get any feedback for, so for you guys to have responded so well in such a short amount of time is absolutely wonderful T3T
> 
> that said, i haven't decided if i want to keep this oneshot-y or turn it into a chapter fic. i'm kinda opposed to chapter fics in general because i never finish them, but i do have a whole outline of where i want this au to go so i might? idk, that remains to me seen. 
> 
> also: everything i know about gymnastics meets comes from watching p much everything from simone biles's career, the summer olympics, and that old show from abc family called make it or break it. i'm bullshitting pretty much everything, including (and especially) the scoring system lmao


End file.
